Central Dauphin School District to ask employees to accept one-year pay freeze

The Central Dauphin School Board plans to ask its employees to accept a one-year pay freeze.

View full sizePAUL CHAPLIN, The Patriot-News Central Dauphin East High School in Lower Paxton Twp.

Facing a $3.3 million deficit, the board overseeing the midstate's largest school district said it would pursue a one-year freeze at a meeting Monday night. The move comes one week after Gov. Tom Corbett unveiled his 2011-12 state budget and asked school employees statewide to accept a one-year freeze in pay.

The board plans to negotiate with administrators and the district's unions. The district said a one-year salary freeze would save $2.4 million.

Corbett's budget would cut aid to Central Dauphin and districts around the state over the current year. Central Dauphin would lose $2.6 million under Corbett's plan, which requires legislative approval.

Central Dauphin must find ways to cut spending because it already has said it would not impose a property tax higher than the cap set by the state, which is 1.4 percent. Districts opting to exceed the state's inflation index must get a waiver from the state or get the approval from voters.

The governor's plan would cut basic education aid to public schools for the first time in 20 years. It would roll back public school aid to the 2008-09 year.

Other districts have said they were surprised by the cuts Corbett has proposed. Even before Corbett introduced his budget, some districts, including Middletown and Steelton-Highspire, had said they planned to cut staffers.

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